This page is all about 3 year old speech and language skills. Keep in mind that these milestones are based on research about typically-developing children but this information is not meant to diagnose a speech-language delay or disorder. There is a wide range of “normal” and just because your child is slightly delayed in a few of these areas, doesn’t necessarily mean he or she has a speech or language delay. Please contact a speech-language pathologist for a screening if you are concerned about your child’s speech and language skills. All norms are taken from the Liguisystems Guide to Communication Milestones which sites the specific resources and research articles used to find each milestone.
Speech Sound Development:
Your 3-year-old should be consistently and correctly using all vowels and the following consonants:
- /p/, /m/, /h/, /n/, /w/
In addition, your child should also no longer be doing the following things with sounds:
- Deleting syllables from multi-syllabic words (such as saying “brella” for “umbrella”)
- Deleting all sounds at the ends of words (such as “ca” for “cat”)
By 3 years of age, your child should be understood by an unfamiliar adult about 75% of the time.
Grammar Development:
- Uses some pronouns (such as “I”, “it”, “me”, “my”, “mine”, “you”, “your”, “she”, “he”, “yours”, and “we”)
How to Teach the Pronouns “He” and “She”
- Uses the “-ing” at the end of verbs (such as “running” and “jumping”)
How to Teach Present Progressive “-ing”
- Is beginning to use these grammatical markers as well:
- Plural “-s” (like socks)
- Past tense “-ed” (like jumped)
- Possessive “’s” (like Mommy’s)
- Some helping verbs like “can”, “do”, “be”, “will”
- Produces sentences with an average length of 3 words
Social Language/Pragmatic Skills
- Watches other children and briefly joins in their play
- Requests permission for items and activities
- Begins to make simple play schemes, like playing house
- Defends own possessions
- Holds up fingers to tell age
- Looks for missing toys
Literacy/Book Skills
- Likes to listen to books/stories for longer periods of time
How to Read to Children for Language Development
- Holds a book correctly
- Begins to recognize logos (like the McDonald’s Golden Arches or a favorite food logo at the grocery store)
- Is developing phonological awareness and pre-reading skills:
The Ultimate Guide to Phonological Awareness and Pre-Reading Skills
Concept Development:
- Distinguishes between “in” and “under”
- Understands (can point to when requested) number concepts of “one” and “two”
- Understands size differences such as “big” and “little”
- Understands “in”, “off”, “on”, “under”, “out of”, “together”, “away from”
- Begins to understand the time concepts of “soon”, “later”, “wait”
- Selects three that are the same out of a set of four objects
- Begins to say adjectives for color and size
How to Teach a New Spatial Concept
Vocabulary Development:
Your three-year-old should be able to say about 1,000 words.
Answering Questions:
- Points to objects when described, such as “What do you wear on your head?”
- Answers questions such as “Where…?”, “What’s that?”, “What’s ___ doing?”, “Who is…?”, and “Can you…?”
Answering Questions Resource Page
Asking Questions:
- Asks simple questions about his/her wants and needs, such as “where cookie?”
- Asks “where…?”, “what…?” and “what ____ doing?” questions
Asking Questions Resource Page
Listening Skills:
- Responds to commands involving body parts, such as “show me your nose”
- Follows simple two-step directions, such as “get your cup and give it to me”
How to Get a Child to Follow Directions
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My child is three and has some of these skills and goes to speech therapy
This is just a general list. Each child develops at his or her own pace.
Dear ms. Carrie, You are so kind and dedicated .Your web site is such a great help.My son is 10 yr old with speech and apraxia. it is only when he was 7 and a half he started saying few words and when asked his speech therapist that in some words he is able to say while is some combination he is not able to make the sound then she told me he has apraxia.His previous school speech therapist told me about prompt therapy and she knew some of it but can’t reveal the technique b’coz of their strict copy right rules and she asked me to contact them.So when i contacted them to see if they have cds etc they told they only train speech pathologist and i should check with their prompt certified therapist but in columbia , sc there is only one clinic which does this they have long waiting list but now with his new speech therapist i am trying to do ‘Touch que ‘ which is really helping him to articulate better.
My child is doing everything here except asking and answering questions. What could be the issue there? He is 2.5 years old.
My child is three and my husbands parents pointed out that her language is slow, but she has most of these skills, and is showing progress in the rest. I never thought there was a problem, but it makes me feel horrible when they say these things that are a direct attack on my parenting skills. She jist turned three last month.
I have the exact same problem with my husbands family they are trying to diagnose my 3 year old with autism, she just turned 3 in january and she is very smart with numbers and songs. Just because she has a lot of attitude and independence she doesn’t ask for things she just does a lot on her own therefor they think shes not communicating yet shell ask me what im doing, tell her little sister to follow her into trouble lol bring me her boots and other objects when asked. She really just doesnt have conversations with people although she does say a lot but I cant quite understand it 100% of the time. She uses nicknames for her family members and greets them with those pronouns also. It upsets me deeply for them to even think she has autism when I see her as so smart. My child also is very big and started walking around 8 months I feel people always treat her older because of that too
It’s certainly not normal for you not to be able understand what your 3 year old says.
I have the same issue with my SOs mother. She’s a coordinator for infant development programs so I guess that means she has the right to put in a clinical input when she only coordinates meetings. It’s caused so many issues and now I’m finding myself always evaluating my daughter like she does whenever I never questioned anything before. Easier said than done but just go wth your gut and if you feel there is some delay then you will make that decision not your MIL. It’s not her place
Respectfully, I’d find it difficult not to be concerned about my grandchild’s speech & language development if I could see that there was a problem. Early intervention creates significantly better outcomes than ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away. I would feel incredibly torn if I didn’t mention my worries, even if it could cause hurt feelings to my DIL. I might suggest that you swallow your pride and get an evaluation for the benefit of your wonderful child.
This is a really helpful article and thanks so much for writing it. A gentle request– please don’t recommend children recognize McDonald’s logos, especially if you want their brains to develop correctly so they are speaking and communicating effectively. McDonald’s food is an abomination to the health and wellbeing of our children and their parents.
Oh good gracious.
McDonald’s was just an example. She’s not saying they have to specifically recognize McDonald golden arch. It’s just an example of how one might recognize a brand or logo to represent a company or something. Just an innocent example.
My son will be 3 in a few weeks and does almost none of these. Not even close. Trying to get him into a therapy program now. After reading this list and comments I know for sure now I need to!
Hello,
My son is 3 and 4 months old. He has a speech delay problem. He knows about 170 words. He goes to speech therapy but we just moved countries. Hes also very short tempered when he cant express himself he screams like theres no tomorrow. He sometimes hits his big brother. Any advice?
Hi, Fatimah-I found this article on Carrie’s site about calming children down: https://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/calming-children-self-calming-strategies/. Please let us know if you need any additional help.
how ur son doing now?
My 3year old daughter is saying over 1200 words and already speaks 7different languages. She also has said that she wants to be a doctor..she is super intelligent…
That’s great for your little one Antonella Pizatta, but I find your comment a little insensitive….
Yes, @Antonella Pizatta. I found your comment insensitive as well.
My son does some of the things. He makes few basic sentences. Otherwise it’s difficult for him to speak and make himself understand. He is being brought up bilingual and I wonder if that is the issue? How do make the accesment on how many words a kid speak?
Hello Wess!
Thank you so much for reaching out. Unfortunately, we get a ton of questions every day about how to solve specific speech/language problems. Since we have such a small staff, we aren’t able to answer every question that comes through on the website, social media, or via email. If you are a parent, we suggest you reach out to a local speech-language pathologist who can work with your child directly and answer your question.
If you are another speech-language professional, we have created a membership where we pay a full staff to answer questions like this on a regular basis. We would be more than happy to answer your question inside the membership program. We’re able to answer more questions in here because we have a full library of questions that we’ve already answered so our staff can either link you to the answer if it exists, or write you a custom response if needed. We’d love to see you inside the membership!
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